News

On 12-13 May in the 114th Session of the CoE Committee of Ministers in Strasbourg, Undersecretary of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Šarūnas Adomavičius voiced the Lithuanian Government’s support for the reform of the system of the European Court of Human Rights. The reform aims at maintaining and reinforcing the long-lasting effectiveness of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and further guaranteeing the right of individual complaint to the ECHR for all citizens of the CoE member states. During the Session the Protocol No.14 to the European Convention on Human Rights amending the Convention was adopted and opened for signature. The new international treaty was signed by the authorised representatives of 17 countries. The MFA Undersecretary also expressed concern over worsening human rights and democracy situation in Belarus and supported the recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly to strengthen the international community’s support for the civil society and independent mass media of Belarus. In the evening of 12 May the traditional informal meeting of the Ministers took place in the residence of the CoE Secretary General Walter Schwimmer. The informal exchange of views in which the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative in Kosovo Harri Holkeri participated has focused on the situation in Kosovo. The major topic of the second part of the Committee of Ministers’ Session on 13 May, was the possible Third Council of Europe Summit, which the Government of Poland had proposed to hold in Warsaw in 2005. The purpose of such a Summit would be to reaffirm the values and standards of the CoE and redefine the CoE role in the changing Europe. On the same day the participants of the Committee of Ministers’ Session in Strasbourg also held the exchange of views on further actions of the CoE in the fight against terrorism and human trafficking. In the end of the session the Netherlands, who held the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the CoE from November 2003 to May 2004, handed over the presidency of the organisation to Norway for the next half-year.